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HON. JAMES HARLAN, OF IOWA, 



SERV^iOE OF THE ]m:ilitia^- ; 

. ■ . — // -l_"^ 

SPEECH 





DELIVERED 



In the United States Senate, July 11, 1862. 



The Senate baving under consideration the bill to amend 
the act calling fortU the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, to suppress insurrections, and repel invasions — 

Mr. HARLAN said : Mr. President, I 
think there can be no doubt but that the Pres- 
id€:nt has the power, under existing laws, to 
call out more troops ; and he is, probably, act- 
ing in pursuance of that authority in the inti- 
mations given to the Governors of the States that 
more would be accepted. One object, I believe, 
in passing this bill, is to enable him to call 
them out for a longer period than the law now 
authorizes, should he deem it necessary. If this 
bill should become a law it will also be an inti- 
mation to the President that in the opinion of 
Congress a change of policy is desirable in the 
particulars that have been referred to by the 
Senators who have spoken this morning. Nor 
do I think that such an intimation by Congress 
ought to be or would be considered by the Pres- 
ident offensive or undesirable. None who un- 
derstand the frankness of his nature could 
■entertain such an opinion. If, in the opinion 
of Congress, any change of policy, however 
small or great, is desirable, I have no doubt 
he would be gratified with a clear, unequivocal 
expression of that opinion. Hence, if the 
President has the power to do all that is con- 
templated by the proposed amendments, their 
adoption can do no harm, and may do goad. 
It divides the responsibility ; and should he 
find it necessary to follow this intimation, he 
will have the support of Congress. And, on 
the other hand, if existing laws do not, as 
some suppose, confer on him this power, it is 
clearly granted by the provisions of this bill 
and pending amendments. The people, also, 
have a right to know that the President's pol- 
icy is approved by their immediate representa- 
tives iiwthe national legislature. I therefore 
differ in opinion with the Senator from Penn 
sylvania, [Mr. Cowan, J if I understand cor- 
rectly the views presented by him this morning 
Off this point ; and still more radically in rela- 
tion to the relative rights of the Government 
and the people of the rebellious States. If I 
u'aderstood him correctly in the expression of 
bis views on this subject a few days since, they 
^ire quite similar to if not identically the same 
ks those entertained by Jefferson Davis, and so 
frequently expressed by him and his associate 



conspirators on this floor during the last Con- 
gress. If I understood his speech correctly, 
he believes that when the people within the 
limits of any State, with considerable or 
practical unanimity, are opposed to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, and desire to 
release themselves from its restraints, they have 
a right to dissolve the Union Jind to organize a 
new Government for themselves. 

_ Mr. CO WAN. I stated, as I remember most 
distinctly, that at the outset of this rebellion we 
had a right to take one of two courses : we had 
the right to assume that these States were out 
of the Union, and we could, by virtue of our 
power as a nation, make war upon them ; could 
make conquest of them, and subjugate them. 
But I desire to say this: that what I suppose 
was taken to resemble secession was the fact 
that I asserted : proceeding as we did upon the 
ground that we would not make conquest and 
subjugation, if, at the end of that time, it was 
found that there were no loyal people there, I 
said there was an end of it, unless we fell back 
upon our rights anas a nation to make conquest 
and subjugation ; and that was the whole of it. 
I say so still, and am prepared to stand upon it 
anywhere. I think it is unexceptionable. 

Mr. HARLAN. I did not use the name of 
the rebel chief in this connection for the pur- 
pose of forming an offensive association of 
names, and had no intention of giving offence. 
I alluded to what appeared to me to be simi- 
larity of argument, and not similarity of char- 
acter. And I suppose it possible for the rebel 
Davis to entertain correct opinions on the the- 
ory of government, while his conduct has been 
so disastrous to the interests of the nation, and 
especially to his own section of the country. 
Abating any offensive features of the allusion, 
I will reiterate that the Senator, as I under- 
stood him, repeated the arguments of the rebel 
Senators who occupied seats on the other side 
of the Chaniber about a year since. They main- 
tained that the people of a State had the right' 
to dissolve their connection with this Govern- 
ment, and either remain as an independent 
State, assuming a distinct nationality, or to af- 
filiate with other States for that purpose ; that 
the people of a State of the Union may, at their 
own election, renounce their allegiance to the 
Federal Government without consultation with 






thepeople of any other State, or of all the remain- 
ing States combined ; that the continuance of 
the Union depended on the volition or caprice 
of the people of each of its parts. I understood 
the Senator to lay down the same premises. 
He said that when this war broke out, every- 
body supposed that a large part of the people 
of the rebellious districts were loyal ; that the 
war was prosecuted on our part to enable these 
loyal people to organize and maintain their 
State governments under the Constitution, as 
heretofore ; but that if there were no loyal peo 
pie in any one of these States, it was the end 
of the controversy; that all just Governments 
^ derived their powers from the consent of the 
\ governed. Now, Mr. President, as it seems to 
^~^me, the only conclusion that can be derived 
from this process of reasoning is, that if the 
people of a State, with substantial unanimity, 
desire to secede, they have the right to do so. 
Nor do I understand the Senator to have op- 
posed this doctrine this morning. He would 
not have advised" the people of any State to se- 
cede; he does not think it was best for them to 
secede ; he thinks it a great calamity that they 
should attempt to secede; he did not, and per- 
haps does not still, believe that the people of 
any one of these States did, with anything like 
unanimity, give their voluntary assent to any 
act of secession ; but, nevertheless, if they did, 
in fact, with ordinary unanimity, desire to dis- 
solve the Union, and are still disloyal, and de- 
liberately resist the authority of the Govern- 
sntnt of the United States, I understand him to 
maintain that we have no constitutional au- 
thority to put them down. I disagree with him. 
If every inhabitant of any one of the States of 
the Union desired to secede, I do not admit 
they have the right to dissolve the Union. I 
maintain that the provision in the Constitution 
which says, " the citizens of each State shall be 
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of 
citizens of the several States,'' is in direct con- 
flict with that assumption. I claim, as a citi- 
zen of the United States from the State of Iowa, 
that I have a right to the protection of the Uni-i 
ted States in South Carolina, in Georgia, in I 
Louisiana, and that it is the duty of this Gov-j 
ernment to afford me the same protection in j 
any other State of the Union that I can claim [ 
of this Government in the State in which I hap- 
pen to reside. Whenever interest, pleasure, or t 
curiosity induces me to enter another State of' 
the Union, the National Governmenthas pledged ' 
me its protection. This is an unconditional | 
obligation. It does not depend on the ])eople| 
of the particular locality. I am no less a citi-| 
zen of the United States in South Carolina than ! 
in Iowa, and my right to claim protection of I 
person and property, and rt dress of grievances, I 
is as complete in any other State as in that of! 
my domicil. Tliis view, however, pertains not! 
alone to the individual rights of each citizen.! 
It is equally applicable to the people of the na- 1 



tion in the aggregate. The people of the whole 
country have the right, in common, to navigate 
the waters of every part, to carry oa commerce, 
and to use either land or water in making a 
common defence against a foreign enemy. The 
rivers, harbors, inlets, bays, and forts in Louis- 
iana, Georgia, or in South Carolina, are as 
much the property of the people of Iowa as of 
the people of the States named. We are taxed 
to improve the one and to construct the other, 
and have a right to demand that, they shall be 
held for the common good. T.'^e harbors at 
New Orleans, Charleston, or New York have 
not been improved and fortified for the people 
of those localities alone ; they are seaports for 
the people of the interior as much as for those 
of the coast. And in practice it may be quite 
as important for the welfare of the people whom 
I represent in part that a foreign enemy should 
be met and repelled at New Orleans as at Keo- 
kuk or Dubuque. 

Nor do I admit the truth of the Senator's 
corollary that harmonious opposition to the 
authority of the United States by the people of 
the rebel States would render it impossible for 
us to crush the rebellion. I know it is fre- 
quently asserted that six or eight million peo- 
ple, fighting for a specific purpose, can never 
be overcome. These assertions, I think, are 
made without reflection, and usually by popu- 
lar orators from the hustings; but when made 
seriously, in a grave, deliberative body, per- 
haps the public welfare may require a serious 
answer. At least members of Congress ought 
to try it by the light of history before adopting 
it as a controlling fact in legislating for the 
perpetuity of a great nation ; and they need 
not travel back very far on the page of history 
to discover how surprisingly naked the false- 
hood stands. Ireland was crushed, Scotland was 
overthrown, and all their people were merged 
with the English in a common nationality. The 
English themselves have been more than once j 
completely overrun, and were finally subju- l 
gated, and their whole feudal system com- | 
pletely changed. Poland has been conquered, 
divided, and her nationality wiped out, so that 
sheno longer has a place among the family of 
nations. 

Mr. COWAN. Allow me to ask the gentle- 
man whether it was not the dissensions of Po- ' 
land, the very fact that she was not united, that 
caused her overthrow ? • 

Mr. HAllLAN. I will answer by asking 1 
where is Hungary, a more recent case of re- 
bellion ? There were many million people 
practically united, a martial people, highly cul- 
tivated, struggling against a despotic powel 
for their independence, who, within the mem 
ory of these boys acting as pages, have bee 
crushed by the superior military power of their 
enemies. 

Mr. COWAN, If the gentleman will allow 
me, I will refer to Hungary as one of the 



( 



strongest examples against his theory. I will 
ask him whether there were not in Hungirj 
three or four distinct races of men ; that they 
have never been able to unite them in one 
solid compact body; and whether it was not 
by means of their dissensions that the Aus- 
trians were enabled to overcome them ; whether 
they do not divide and conquer them always ? 

Mr. LANE, of Kansas. If the Senator from 
Iowa will permit me, I wish to say but a single 
word. The Senator from Pennsylvania is op- 
posing a proposition upon this floor that he 
well knows will divide and array four million 
people against six million in these rebellious 
States. 

Mr. HARLAN. Although what the Senator 
from Pennsylvania says may be technically 
true, that the inhabitants of Hungary, many 
ages back, may have originated in different 
nationalities, he knows very well that in that 
struggle they were practically united. The Aus- 
trians never were able to organize a loyal army 
in Hungary from her own people until they had 
crushed out the armies led by the Magyars, and 
scattered their leaders as fugitives over the face 
of the earth. Nor was there any division of the 
armed inhabitants of Poland to obstruct the 
success of her armies in fighting for a nation- 
ality then as old and as firmly established as 
the other nations of Europe. Poland was 
crushed because her enemies were able to wield 
superior physical power. 

But, sir, the history of the world is full of 
illustrations. Where is Mexico? Ten million 
people practically united, a large part of them 
of Castilian origin, imperious and martial in 
spirit and habits, accustomed to the use of arms, 
as a profession and for amusement, from child- 
hood, inhabiting a country far more difficult 
than the rebel States, and led by a gallant and 
successful general, whose successes had secured 
him the title of the Napoleon of America, were i 
crushed by your own arms, when your entire , 
population did not equal the present population i 
of the loyal States of the Union. You sent 1 
your armies and munitions of war a thousand [ 
miles by sea to invade their homes, and fought | 
them many hundreds of miles south of New 
Orleans, and yet, in two short years, you com- 
pletely crushed her armies, and scattered them 
in guerrilla bands to prey on their own people 
like a cloud of locusts. Her nationality was , 
so crushed that your generals were compelled ! 
to organize for them a provisional government j 
with which to make treaties of peace and amity, ! 
your own government dictating the terms. But, i 
sir, I need not repeat minor examples. I will ; 
ask the Senator, if France, within his own 
memory, was not crushed by the opposing, 
Powers of Europe ? In civilization and refine- 
ment, in a knowledge of the arts and sciences, 
in the martial spirit of her people, in the cour- 
age, experience, skill, and renown of her field : 
marshals, France has no superior ; and yet, 1 



while under the leadership of Napoleon the 
Great, France was crushed. The Emperor of 
the French was carried by his captors to an 
island in the deep sea, where he lived the cap- 
tive of jealous kings, and died a prisoner of 
State. France, standing at the head of the 
nations, was compelled to receive a ruler dic- 
tated by her conquerors ! 

Is it necessary to consume more time in refu- 
tation of the assumption, that if the people of 
the rebel States are united they cannot be con- 
quered ? If Ireland could be crushed, if Scot- 
land could be crushed, if England could be 
crushed, if Poland could be crushed, if Hunga- 
ry could be crushed, if Mexico could be crush- 
ed, and if France herself could be crushed, 
why may not twenty-four loyal States crush out 
the rebellion in ten States ? If the people of 
thetwenty-four loyal States admit their inability, 
it will be a mournful confession of inferiority 
which will make their memory a stench in the 
nostrils of their own posterity. 

But, sir, the people of the rebel States are 
not united. The amendments now pending 
have been offered on the assumption that there 
are nearly four million people within the limits 
of those States who are loyal. la all the States 
tolerating slavery there are said to be four mil- 
lion slaves. Excluding Delaware, Maryland, 
Western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Missouri, probably the negroes are equal to 
three-sevenths of the entire population. Prob- 
ably two-sevenths of the whole population and 
of our race, within the limits of these States, are 
loyal ; or, in the aggregate, five-seventhsjof the 
whole population, black and white. This is not 
an extravagant estimate. We all know from 
concurrent history, that a large number of the 
soldiers in the rebel armies are serving by com- 
pulsion ; and hundreds of thousands of non-com- 
batants are compelled by these armed conscripts 
to submit to the rebel authority, to avoid person- 
al violence and the confiscation of their proper- 
ty. The folly of our own Government and com- 
manding generals in the field has exercised no 
small share of itifluence in producing this re- 
sult. We have carefully protected the property 
of rebels ia both loyal and disloyal States, and 
have spurned the assistance of the loyal por- 
tions of communities under the civil control of 
rebel leaders. The object of this bill is to in- 
augurate a different policy ; to secure the or- 
ganization of the loyal people in the disloyal 
districts, under the flag of the Union, and make 
it the interest of all loyal people to aid in es- 
tablishing the supremacy of the Constitution 
and the laws f thus adopting in practice the 
adage, " divide and conquer," used in its high- 
est and most honorable sense. 

This policy is demanded by the highest and 
most sacred considerations of humanity. It 
would shorten the struggle, and consequently 
save hundreds of millions of treasure and tens 
of thousands of valuable lives. What could be 



} 



greater folly than to fight the whole population 
of the rebel districts, when only about two- 
sevenths are your re-il enemies ? What but 
madness or real disloyalty at heart could in- 
duce any commanding general to compel the 
five sevenths, or less, as the case may be, to 
acquiesce in and indirectly support the rebel- 
lion ? Is it not a duty that we owe to ourselves, 
as well as to them, to avail ourselves of this 
proffered aid? 

I know some of the Representatives and 
Senators from slaveholding States object to the 
arming of colored people, and I will consider 
these objections presently. 

We have seen, when examined in the light 
of history, no sane man could reasonably doubt 
the ability of the twenty-four loyal States to 
crush the rebellion in ten States, if the people 
of the ten were acting as a unit ; we have seen 
also that nothing but the most stupid blind- 
ness, if not criminality on our part, can. secure 
unanimity in the rebel districts ; hence, that 
we can crush the rebellion speedily if we act 
wisely. If any one doubts the correctness ot 
this conclusion, let us judge of our ability in 
the future by what we have achieved during 
the past year. It is little more than a year 
since the war was commenced by the rebels 
at Fort Sumter, near Charleston. Since then 
political animosities in all the free States, on 
which the leaders of the rebellion counted 
so largely for succor, have been substantially 
buried ; and although we commenced almost 
without an army and without a navy, whatever 
there was of rebellious feeling in Delaware has 
been suppressed : whatever rebellion existed in 
Maryland has been destroyed; the rebellion in 
one-third of Virginia, the western part of Vir- 
ginia, has been entirely put down, so that I be- 
lieve there is hardly a guerrilla left to annoy 
the peaceful inhabitants ; the rebellion in Ken- 
tucky has been crushed out, the rebel armies 
within her limits have melted away into guer- 
rilla bands, and these are rapidly disappearing. 
Tennessee is under the control of the old flag. 
The rebellion has been crushed in Missouri. 
Although overwhelmed from Arkansas to Iowa 
but a few months since with rebel armies, which 
controlled the whole country, now her own 
home guards are able to furnish ample protec- 
tion to the peaceful pursuits of life. Whatever 
of rebellion existed in the Territories has been 
suppressed : large rebel armies have been driven 
out of New Mexico. The Mississippi river has 
been opt^ned from Cairo to its mouth ; nearly 
every fortification on either bank has been cap 
tured and is now garrisoned by loyal troops. 
All the great cities of the South threatened or 
controlled by the rebellion have been captured 
and are in your possession. St. Louis, Balti 
more, Alexandria, Wheeling, Norfolk, Le.xing- 
ton, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and a 
host of towns of minor importance, are all in 
your posBeseion. Two cities of some political 



consequence and of less commercial importance, 
I Richmond and Charleston, only remain in the 
I possession of the rebels. The entire coast from 
I the Rio Grande to the Potomac, and all its de- 
1 fences, are in your possession, and are defended 
j by strong garrisons. The rebel fleets have been 
swej)t from the sea. Not a rebel ship, I believe, 
remains afloat to excite the cupidity of sailor or 
marine. Nearly every armed rebel boat has been 
captured, sunk, or destroyed. The rebels, I be- 
lieve, have scarcely one gun or man afloat on 
river, harbor, lake, or ocean. While your gallant 
Navy has thus effectually destroyed every ves- 
tige of rebellion within reach of its guns, your 
Array has not been idle, as is demonstrated in 
the general results mentioned. Not to partic- 
ularize hundreds of great successes, yet of minor 
importance, I might mention the capture of two 
large rebel armies, with all their guns, supplies, 
and equipments — one at Fort Henry, the other 
at Donelson. They have crushed, routed, and 
dispersed another at Pea Ridge ; so that what 
remains of the rebel forces west of the Missis- 
sippi is a greater curse to their own friends than 
annoyance to the Union troops. They have 
crushed and scattered another, far more gigan- 
tic in its proportions, at Corinth, so that noth- 
ing much superior to a guerrilla warfare is now 
carried on in either Louisiana or Mississippi. 
Your troops have secured a firm lodgment 
within the limits of every one of the rebel States. 
And even in front of Richmond, where the en- 
emy have concentrated all their forces, appa- 
rently for a last desperate effort, and where I 
doubt not, on account of this concentration, 
they outnumbered ovxr own gallant army move 
than two to one, after a series of pitched bat- 
tles, extending over a period of seven or eight 
days, the Union flag is still floating in triumph, 
the army rests in a more secure position than 
when the first gun was fired by the enemy, its 
columns unbroken, undaunted in spirit, buoy- 
ant and confident; its flanks fully protected by 
a fleet of gunboats, and its communication with 
its supplies perfectly secure. If properly rein- 
forced and supported by the Government and 
people, of which I have no doubt, this gallant, 
unconquered, and unconquerable army of the 
Potomac will be able, notwithstanding the check 
which it has received, to accomplish the object 
of the campaign in the course of the next thirty 
days. 

Then I inquire, in all candor, for the cause 
of the despondence which has been manifested 
in this Chamber. After this review of their 
achievements, are we not content with it as the 
fruits of their toil and exposure for but a single 
lyear? The armies of Rome, during her most 
I palmy days, never accomplished half so much 
I in so short a period. It is true many men 
I have fallen in the field of battle ; some have 
j been killed and many wounded, and many 
I more have fallen on account of exposure and 
sickness incident to camp life. And still oth- 



ers have been uselessly sacrificed by drudgery 
from which it seems to be the purpose of the 
Seaate to relieve them iu the future, and which 
may be set down as the fruits of the folly, big- 
otry, or inexperience of generals, who are, ia 
the main, officers of great ability and merit. 
But all these losses, when added together, are 
comparatively trivial ; they have not diminish- 
ed the probabilities of our speedy triumph in 
the least ; nor has the physical power and 
strength of the nation been diminished on ac- 
count of the war one iota. I do not doubt but 
that an enumeration of the population of the 
United States, if taken to-day, would show our 
increase during the past year, notwithstanding 
those losses, to have been as great as it hay 
been during any other year of the existence of 
this nation. The Almighty never inflicts on a 
people two great calamities at the same time. 
When they are cursed with a war that is sweep- 
ing away its thousands, He never has, I think 
I ma,y say without irreverence He never will, 
afflict them at the same time with pestilence 
and famine. I know that the rebels have been 
counting on the destruction of our armies by 
plagues and fevers. I have not. I have known 
that the people of the whole country would be 
more vigorous and healthy during the contin 
uance of this civil war than they have been for 
an age past. It is in the order of Providence 
that it should be so ; and if Senators will but 
look around them they will find that it has 
been so sinee the war commenced. You have 
had no cholera, you have had no yellow fever, 
you have had no plagues or famine to sweep 
away your people. The Almighty has visited 
us with one great curse during the past year — 
civil war. This has carried off its thousands. 
None have died with cholera, plague, or yellow 
fever ; and the ordinary diseases of the country 
have been of a milder type than usual. We 
are probably numerically stronger to-day than 
we were the day the rebels opened their batte- 
ries on Fort Sumter. 

The Senator from New York [Mr. King] 
says he does not despair of the Republic. Nor 
do I. Why should I despair ? Mr. President, 
I do not doubt our final success. We not only 
have the power, but in my judgment will con- 
tinue to possess the power, if we are but faith- 
ful to ourselves, to crush out whatever still ex- 
ists of this rebellion. 

I am not, however, blind to what seems to 
me to be the intimations of an overruling Prov- 
idence, as this struggle progresses, and I would 
express it, of course, with great deference ; but 
in my judgment this struggle will not be closed 
until slavery shall have been practically termi- 
nated. I believe that the overruling hand of 
God is in this war. I believe that He has suf- 
fered us to come to blows for the very purpose 
of developing this great good to the human 
family. There are but two civilized enlight 
eced nations on earth that permit human 



slavery within the limits of their home Gov- 
ernments — our own and one in South America. 
Some others permit it in their colonies, but 
not at their home Government. A century or 
so since, all tolerated slavery in some form. 
But during the last hundred years Christianity 
has achieved great triumphs. Liberty of con- 
science is now tolerated in a wonderful degree 
by nearly all the great nations. The Christian 
religion has been carried into every quarter of 
the globe. There are now between two and 
three hundred million Christians iu the world. 
Nearly one-third of the inhabitants of the earth 
are Christians, and they control all the enlight- 
ened nations. It is impossible that these prin- 
ciples should be inculcated without producing 
their legitimate fruits — the amelioration of the 
human family. The man who has '' fallen 
among thieves" attracts the sympathy of the 
Christian world. God intended that it should 
be so. He intended that those who are sick 
and in prison should be visited by the ha,nd of 
mercy; He iutended that the naked should be 
clothed, that the hungry should be fed, that the 
widow and the orphan should be sheltered, 
that the weak should be protected, that the 
oppressed should go free. These purposes of 
Providence have culminated iu a system of 
free schools embracing the poor in nearly every 
enlightened nation; in the improvement of 
prisons and prison discipline ; in the libera- 
tion of slaves ; in the enfranchisement of serfs ; 
in the construction of asylums for the insane; 
in the education of the deaf and dumb, and 
blind, and of idiots ; and in the erection and 
support of hospitals and retreats for the afHicted 
with every species of loathsome disease. The 
people of the United States have kept pace 
with the other Christian nations in every be- 
nevolent work except remembering our bond- 
men as if we were in bonds with them, and 
doing unto them as we would that they should 
do unto us, had our relative conditions been 
reversed. When reproached by other nations 
for acting the laggard, we have arrayed many 
excuses, but have had one substantial reason, 
as a nation, for declining to terminate this sys- 
tem within our limits. 

It has been maintained by all our jurists that 
within the limits of any State of the Union the 
national Congress has no constitutional author- 
ity to interfere in the regulation of the institu- 
tions that relate exclusively to the internal pol- 
icy of its people ; that the national Government 
may do whatever is necessary for our external 
defense, inceroal peace, and for the promotion 
of the general welfare ; but that the people of 
each State must be permitted to be the exclu- 
sive judge of the propriety of its own local laws, 
applicable to its own people alone ; that on all 
these subjects this Government should not in- 
terfere, should not impose its opinions, nor 
suffer itself to be used as an instrument in the 
hand of the people of any other State or States • 



6 



for imposing their opinions and views on the 
people of any other State. Nobody has enter- 
tained that opinion more honestly than I have, 
nor has anybody been more anxious to carry it 
out in practice ; having, during my short pub- 
lic career, ever maintained this doctrine, both 
ii; public and private, as well as by my votes in 
the Senate. 

But, in my judgment, this disability has been 
removed, and this brings me to consider the 
further suggestion of the Senator from Penn- 
sylvania, and urged by other Senators. They 
maintained that all the States that have been 
in this Union are still in the Union ; that, theo- 
retically, the Union has not been dissolved ; 
that a State once existing as a member of this 
Union cannot, by any act of its own people, be 
annihilated and cease to be a member of the 
Union ; that once a State always a State, or, as 
others have expressed it, " the king never dies ; 
the prince is always in existence." Well, sir, 
I have anticipated in part the answer to this 
theory. The argument is superficial. It is 
the common-law doctrine, applicable to rights 
of persons and property in a State, that has noi 
died and cannot die. Titles acquired under 
one prince are not destroyed by the existence 
of an interregnum ; the title does not terminate 
on account of the death of the grantor, but 
must be construed to be a grant I'rom his suc- 
cessor, and this perpetuity of title is not to be 
termiuated even during the period when there 
is no prince. So far as the holder of the fran- 
chise of the grantee under the prince is con- 
cerned, the prince connot die; that is, the 
grant continues, the franchise is still good, the 
title valid, though the king be dead. 

To those who argue that a State cannot cease 
to exist, I inquire where is Poland? Is it still 
a State ? Where is Sparta and the other States 
of Greece? Where is Carthage? Where is 
Rome — that Rome over which the consuls pre- 
sided and the Caesars ruled ? Where is Egypt — 
that Egypt which was the nursery of learning 
and the arts before the foundations of the pyra- 
mids were laid ? Where is .Judea, once a State 
so brilliant and powerful under the reign of 
King David? Where is Scotland, once the ri 
val of England, whose death has become im- 
mortal in the fame of her warrior clans led by 
her BrucfS? But why pursue this subject? An 
absurdity'needs no refutation. To state it is to 
expo.se it. It is futile to argue that the tyrants 
who destroyed Poland, as the wolf and the 
jackall desniember their prey taken in a com- 
mon chase, had no right to do so : the conclu- 
sive fact still exists — Poland was destroyed. 
She has ceased to exist as a State ! She no 
longer has a place among the nations! If Sparta 
and Judea and Scotland and Poland ceased to 
exist as States, so may South Carolina and 
Georgia and Florida and any other State. If 
Scotland died by tiie hand of England, South 
Carolina may commit suicide ! The possibility 



of terminating the life of a State is a question of 
controversy, and not the manner of the death. 

If a State government may be destroyed by 
the people residing within its own boundaries, 
we inquire in the next place if some of the 
States of this Union have not been destroyed. 
If these States have not, in contemplation of 
law and the Constitution, ceased to exist, they 
are still States ; and if States, they are either in 
the Union or out of the Union as States. 

Now, what is a State ? It is not, I appre- 
hend, the land on which a people may happen 
I to live ; nor is it the people that may happen 
j to live on the land. It is such a legal organi- 
zation of the people in one compact community 
j as will enable it to protect the rights of each 
j and all against all intruders, usually denomi- 
nated a government, with such officers as will 
I enable it to enact laws and administer justice, 
j and hold intercourse with other States or na- 
tions. I inquire if, in South Carolina, there 
now exists such a State ? If so, is it in the 
j Union ? If it is a State still in the Union, 
where is its Governor, where is its Legislature, 
wliere is its judiciary? If you recognise it as 
j a State, you must recognise the organs through 
which the people act. You cannot claim that 
it is a State because the land is there on which 
the people live, nor merely because there are 
people living on the land ; but it must be be- 
. cause there is such a political or civil organiza- 
I tion of that people as enables you to recognise 
, their existence through their officers — execu- 
1 tive, legislative, and judicial. 
I If you admit that such a State exists within 
the limits of South Carolina, I humbly submit 
I that it is out of the Union. Thei'e is no Gov- 
ernor there whom you can recognise as a 
Governor; there is no Legislature there that 
'you can appeal to as a Legislature; there are 
\ no judges there before whom your people can 
claim a trial of their rights, and whose adjudi- 
cations you can recognise as valid. 

If a people exist there without an Execu- 

,' tive, without a Legislature, and without a judi- 

\ ciary system which you can recognise, is it a 

State ? I maintain that it is not a State ; and 

I think I am sustained in this conclusion by the 

language of the Constitution itself. It says; 

'• The Senators anil ReproseDt-itives before mentioned, 
and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all 
executive and judicial officers, biith of Iho United States 
and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirm- 
ation to support this Constitution ; and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, anythinj; in the Constitutiort 
or laws of any Stale to the contrary notwithstanding." 

Now, sir, I submit that there is no such 
Governor ; that there are no such judges in any 
one of the rebel States'; that their .State organ- 
ization has ceased to exist ; it has been oblite- 
rated by their own wicked people. You can 
no longer recognise the people within those 
boundaries as a State. You have no means of 
reaching them through any State organization: 
and if there is no civil organization through 



which you can reach them as the people of a 
State, the State has ceased to exist. 

I submit, in the next place, that the Pres- 
ident, in adialaisterin^ the laws in these rebel 
districts, has asuimed that no State govern- 
ments exists. If reunessee and North Caro- 
lina are still States of the Union, what ricjht 
had your President to app:)int Governors for 
their people? If these rebel districts are still 
States of the Uuion, what constitutional right 
has the President to proceed to suppress an 
insurrection ualess requested to do so by the 
Legislatures thereof, or, during their recess, 
by the Governors? Again, if these districts are 
still States of the Uaion, what right has thePres- 
ident to commission the officers of their militia 
called into the service of the United States, the 
Constitution expressly reserving the right to 
appoint the officers to the States respectively 
from which they are ca led ? Has not the Pres 
ideut treated the people of these rebel districts 
iu all these respects precisely as if they were 
Territories of the United States ? Is it possi- 
ble for him to administer the laws of the United 
States within their limits in any other manner? 

It is^ therefore manifest that you are com- 
pelled, iu your official action, to hold and gov- 
ern them as organized Territories, or to ac- 
knowledge their independence. In what, then, 
does any one of these rebel States differ from 
Nebraska, or any other Territory of the Union ? 
In nothing whatever except the naked pretence 
that a State government once existing c»n never 
cease to exist, in violation of the historical fact 
that they have ceased, and do cease to exist, 
either through the madness of their own peo- 
ple, or in consequence of the superior strength 
of their enemies. Your President has elected 
to consider the State governments within these 
old State boundaries extinct. For all practical 
purposes they are dead. All the State laws lie 
as a dead letter on the statute-books, unless 
you choose to revive them. But if you have 
power to revive them and give them vitality, 
you may enact other laws as yon would enact 
laws for any other Territory. The people are 
citizens of the United States ; they have a right 
to claim the protection of the laws of the Uni- 
ted States : and your President, wit h your sanc- 
tion, is proceeding to organize provisional local 
governments within the limits of those States 
as rapidly as they are overrun by your armies. 
It is true that he expests, and we expect, that 
when this rebellion shall have been suppressed, 
these people will reorganize their State govern- 
ments, and become members of the Union. 
But while this practical death continues. Con- 
gress and the President are responsible for the 
character of their civil governments and their 
local institutions, as iu any other Territory of 
the United States. 

In my opinion you have not only the right 
to govern the people of these rebel States as 
Territories, but it is your duty to do so; and, 



moreover, that you can never suppress the re • 
belliou in any other manner. Civilized people 
cannot live with each other in large numbers 
without a civil government. Property must be 
bought and sold, wills must be made, deaths 
will occur, estates must be administered, mar- 
riages must be solemnized, debts must be col- 
lected, and criminals must be punished. If 
you do not furnish them the necessary legal 
means for the transaction of all this business, 
even loyal men must adopt the rebel govern- 
ment. Every civilized community soon learns 
that a bad government is better than none ; 
hence they will submit to an illegitimate prince 
to avoid anarchy. 

But if you have the right, and it is your duty 
to organize temporary governments for these 
districts as you do for other Territories, you 
have the right to extend to them all general 
laws enacted for the people of the Territories. 
You have the same discretion in the one case 
that you have iu the other. As to these rebel 
States, you are no longer restrained by the 
Constitution from liberating the slaves if the 
interests of the country and the perpetuity of 
the Union require it. That they will be liber- 
ated before the war is concluded, I have not 
the slightest doubt; and I may as well state 
that this conviction is derive! in part from what 
is known to be the will and wish and prayerful 
expectation of the slaves themselves. I think 
one of the most conclusive evidences of the im- 
mortality of the human soul is the existence 
throughout the whole human family of a desire 
for immortality ; and I believe it is the opin- 
ion of theologians who have written on this 
subject, that an all-wise Being of infinite mercy 
and wisdom and omnipotent power would not 
implant in the mind of all people of all ages a 
longing, thirsting desire to live forever, and in- 
tend to thwart that wish. He could not be a 
good Being and implant that desire, and at the 
same time intend to thwart it. It is inconsist- 
ent with all the ideas we have of His perfection. 
Well, sir, we know that these people — and there 
are four millions of them — have been anxiously 
looking forward to the time when they shall be 
liberated. They have been praying for it, and 
they now hail your troops as they enter the 
rebel States as the messengers of their libera- 
tion, and it is only by thrusting them from your 
ranks at the point of the bayonet that you can 
prevent them from uniting with you to suppress 
the enemies of the country. I do not believe 
that the Almighty Being who rules the world, 
a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness, will 
thwart the wish of this great multitude of His 
children. Their ancestors were brought here 
in a very degraded condition. By their asso- 
ciations with civilized communities they have 
been greatly improved. They have aaaineJ 
that condition in the scale of existence which 
requires a change in their relations. I have 
no doubt the time has arrived when the Al- 



s 



mighty intends that they shall be free, and men 
read events very blindly, as blindly as did the 
Pharaohs of Egypt, who can look at this great 
subject in any other light. You may delay the 
fulfilment of this purpose of Providence until 
all the plagues that visited Egypt have been 
poured out on this nation and until the blood 
of the first born of the entire nation has com- 
mingled with the waters of your rivers, before 
you yield to tLis intimation of infinite wisdom; 
but in the end it will be accomplished; if not 
with your concurrence, it will be by the inter- 
vention of other nations. 

My reasons for this I will state as briefly as 
I can. First, we have not and never have had 
the hearty friendship of any monarchy on earth. 
Our Government was organized on principles 
in direct cotjflict with their theory of civil so- 
ciety. They have always maintained that the 
masses of the people are incapable of self gov- 
ernment, and if now ours should be destroyed, 
it would afford overwhelming practical proof 
of the uiter futility of all efforts to support a 
republic. Despots will point with a sneer to 
the failure of " the great Republic across the 
Atlantic," as the last fearful example of the 
folly of mankind in this respect. They have, 
therefore, a great stake in this issue. If by any 
act of theirs, or by any influence they are able 
to bring to bear, not dangerous in its ultimate 
consequences to their own existence, they can 
secure the permanent dissolution of the 
Union, and in the end the division of the 
residue into many fragments, to be tram- 
pled under foot or spit upon at the caprice of 
the great Powers, they will have furnished a 
demonstration of man's incapacity for self-gov- 
ernment that all the lovers of freedom in the 
world will not be able to refute. Who, then, 
can doubt their disposition to aid the rebellion ? 

But they cannot intervene without a pretext 
that will meet the approval of the moral sense 
of mankind. No merely material interest will 
justify their intervention in favor of a rebellion 
against an established Government. The ex- 
ample might be contagious. It is not the in- 
terest of crowned heads to sanction insurrec- 
tions. The scarcity of cotton will never induce 
England or France to intervene. The support 
of their operatives directly from their public 
treasuries until a supply can be secured from 
other quarters would cost them much less than 
the cost of a war with the United States for a sin- 
gle month. To iiitf-rpose an armed mediation 
would be equivalent toadeclaration of war which 
they cannot afford to make for cotton. They will 
not, therefore, at the beginning, probably, pro 
pose a direct armed intervention in favor of the 
rebels. When intervention comes, if it ever 
should come, it will be a moral intervention. 
They will advise us to agree to a dissolution; 
they will advise ns that the material interests 
of both jjarts of the country and the welfare of, 
the human family require it. If we persist in 



our purposes, as we shall, they may induce the 
rebels to adopt an act of t- mancipation on con- 
dition of recognition. They can then exhibit 
us to the world as the persistent prosecutors of 
a war for dominion, and against the interests 
of humanity. They will prove this from our 
own State papers, written by our great Secre- 
tary of State since this struggle commenced, in 
which he has distinctly informed the great 
Powers that the relative condition of the peo- 
ple in the rebellious States is to remain un- 
changed, let this struggle terminate as it may. 

Hence, in the contingency I have supposed 
we would be placed before the democracy of 
Europe clearly iu the wrong, fighting for do- 
minion and the perpetuity of slavery. With 
the sympathies of the masses of Europe against 
us, with the four million slaves probably armed 
in support of the rebellion, with the promise of 
freedom as the reward of their success, and 
with the predisposition of all the crowned heads 
to suffer republics to destroy themselves, my 
confidence in our ultimate success would be 
greatly diminished. We would, of course, still 
succeed, if God continued to be on our side. 
But in that contingency, I am not cert^iin that 
we could count on his blessing. If Napoleon 
and England should interpose to create a new 
nationality, and to liberate four million slaves, 
they might claim to be intervening in the in- 
terests of mankind, and in accordance with the 
great ideas that control the civilization of the 
age. Putting the intervention on this ground, 
I am not certain that you could safely rely on 
the friendship of the Emperor of the Russians, 
on whose support we have relied more strongly 
than on any other nation. After having liberated 
the serfs of his own empire, how could he be 
expected to make a diversion iu our favor, and 
thus assist to rivet the shackles on our slaves ? 
II believe we' may count on his friendship to 
[checkmate our enemies in the Old World, al- 
ways, when we deserve it ; but could we expect 
him, after having carried into effect this great 
edict making citizens of many millions of his 
own serfs, to interpose in the face of the other 
Christian nations to enable us to perpetuate 
slavery within our limits? It would be unrea- 
sonable to expect it. We should therefore an- 
ticipate them by making it the interest of many 
millions of the people of the rebel States to 
assist us, and the interest of humanity that we 
should triumph. 

If we act wisely and in accordance with these 
intimations of an ovorruling Providence, I do 
not believe the combined Powers of the earth 
can put us down or intervene between us and 
the certain achievement of a glorious destiny; 
hence I was gratified beyond measure with the 
statement made by the Senator from Kentucky, 
in his place on the floor of the Senate, a day or 
two since, that if the perpetuation of this Union 
required it, every slave that he owned should 
freely go, and every slave owned by his neigh- 



9 



bor3 in Kentucky would be freely given to save 
the country. I believe that the time is now at 
hand when these great sacrifices are demanded, 
when some plan for the liberation of the slaves, 
especially in the rebel States, should be adopted, 
and the able-bodied men incorporated into our 
armies, if we would successfully maintain this 
struggle for the perpetuation of our nationality. 
As 1 conceive, the door has been thrown open 
by the hand of God. There is no longer any 
constitutional difficulty. These State govern- 
ments having been destroyed, the country and 
the people still remaining under our jurisdic- 
tion within the boundaiies of the United States, 
it is not only right, but it is our duty, to organ- 
ize temporary civil governments and maintain 
them until the people shall have reorganized 
their State governments under the provisions 
of the Constitution. If this is the correct view 
of the subject, you may pass whatever laws, 
within the limits of those rebel States, that 
might be rightfully enacted for any other Terri- 
tory under the jurisdiction of the United States, 
and in which no State government exists, in- 
cluding laws for the liberation of slaves, and 
their organization for the common defence. 

Hitherto good men throughout the North and 
West have justified the continuance of slavery, 
as the Senator from Pennsylvania did today, 
on the filea that we have no power to abolish it 
within the States ; that this toleration of sla- 
very was a part of the original bargain when 
the Constitution was adopted ; that you and I 
were parties to that contract. I have faith 
fully lived up to it until the State governments 
within the limits of these rebel States have 
been destroyed by the wickedness of their own 
people, and the country reduced to the condi 
tion of a Territory. But now they have no 
civil government that we can recognise unaer 
the Constitution ; the people and the country 
are still within the limits and under the juris- 
diction of the United States. I would, there- 
fore, interpose, and give them a government as 
I would any ot .er community within our juris- 
diction having none that can be recognised by 
us or by ottier nations. I would enact for their 
government just such laws as in my judgment 
their interests and the interests of the nation 
and of humanity demand. 

If I read the signs of the times correctly, this 
has be 'ome a necessity. We cannot, if we per- 
sist in our folly, thwart the ultimate purposes 
of the Almighty. By his providential interpo 
sition He h-as thrown open the door for the 
liberation of a nation of bondmen ; He has re- 
moved the constitutional impediment ; He has 
caused their assistance to be necessary for the 
perpetuity of the Union and the integrity of the 
nation. If we accept of this high destiny, all 
the nations of earth combined against us would 
be as flax in the flames ; but if we are not 
equal to the demands of the age, and obsti- 
nately refuse to follow the plain intimations of 



Providence, this great work will be handed 
over to other nations, or will be wrought out by 
the rebels themselves, and our nation will be- 
come permanently divided. 

But if we adopt this policy, Senators inquire, 
what shall be done with the liberated slaves? 
I answer, muster a portion of the able-bodied 
men into the service of the Republic, employ 
them in your camps and fortifications as la- 
borers, or your transports and gunboats as la- 
borers and sailors, and, if necessary, let them 
participate in the glories of the battle field, and 
bear their just proportion of the burdens and 
dangers of this great conflict. And as for the 
residue, let them alone ; let them take care of 
themselves hereafter, as many of them have 
heretofore. 

Senators talk of them as saoages, as if they 
had been recently caught in the jungles of 
Africa and brought to our shores, without a 
languasre, without knowledge, without civiliza- 
tion. This was true of their ancestors, but not 
of the present generation. A great change has 
been wrought in their condition ; they are now 
comparatively well civilized. There are eleven 
thousand of these men that you call savages right 
at your door, in the District of Columbia. By 
an act of this Congress some one or two thou- 
sand more have been set free. When that bill 
was under discussion. I remember that the 
Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. Davis,] and some 
other Senators, in whose wisdom I generally 
confide, and for whose opinions I have very 
high respect, told us that if such a liw should 
be enacted the slaughters of St. Domingo would 
be re-enacted ; that these black people could 
not live in peace as freemen among a white 
people; that a war of races would spring up, 
which would result in the destructiou of the 
one race or the other. 

Has this prediction been fulfilled ? Have 
any riots occurr^-d ? Have any murders been 
committed by these freed men? Not one ! On 
the passage of that law these ignorant people, 
as you may deem them, collected in their 
churches and school-houses where they were 
accustomed to worship, to praise the Almighty 
for their deliverance ; and after this manifesta- 
tion of gratitude they all quietly returned to the 
peaceful pursuits of life ; since which every- 
thing has progressed as usual. These people 
are now, as heretofore, laborers in your fields 
and shops, and servants in your houses. No- 
body has been damagerl ; no riots have arisen ; 
society has not been discomposed in the least, 
notwithstandincr the very extraordinary speeches 
of the gentlemen who happened to represent 
what are called the border States in the two 
branches of Congress. If Senators will open 
their eyes and look at these people, they will 
discover that they are no longer savages, but, 
in a comparative point of view, highly civilized. 
They provide for their own wants, they provide 
their own food and clothing and shelter, and for 



10 



the education of their own children, for the sup- 
port of their own churchas and schools, and 
bury their own dtiad; and durinpf the seven 
years of my service at the capital of the nation 
I have never seen a negro beggar — not one. I 
have seen white beggars ; I have seen white 
boys and girls begging for a penny of each 
passer by at the crossing;? ; I have seen stal 
wart men and women, of almost every nation- 
ality, begging in your streets and thorough- 
fares ; but never yet have I seen a negro beg- 
gar in the streets of the capital of the nation. 

In Baltimore, within an hour's run from this 
capital, it is said there are about thirty-eight 
thousand colored people. Of these about two 
thousand two hundred are slaves. There are 
nearly thirty-six thousand free colored people 
living in the commercial metropolis of Mary- 
land, and no one conversant with their condi- 
tion will dare to assert on the floor of the Sen- 
ate that they are either paupers or criminals. 
There, as here, they provide for their own 
wants; by the sweat of their own brow they 
earn their own brep.d. They feed, clothe, and 
shelter their own families, bury their own dead, 
educate their own children, and there, as here, 
support their own peculiar forms of religious 
worship. With these illustrations right at your 
door, and within an hoar's ride of the capital, 
will any Senator stand on the floor of the Ame- 
rican Senate, and forfeit his reputation for can- 
dor in declaring these people to be savages ? 
They are more highly civilized than the child- 
ren of Israel when they were led out of Egypt 
by the hand of God, and probably fully equal 
to them, iu this respect, when they returned 
from Babylon. They will compare very favor- 
ably in civilization with the masses of the 
peasantry of Eur>>pe, and I challenge any one 
who is cuv'ous to the comparison. And yet 
with thousands of these free colored people all 
around ue, directly before our eyes, a standing 
gigantic demonstration of this inexcusable 
falsehood. Senators persist in debate in calling 
them savages, and insist that they shall not 
be armed in the defence of our common 
country, lest it may shock the sensibilities of 
mankind, and rftimulate the great Powers to 
interfere and end a war that under such a pol- 
icy must result in the indiscriminate slaughter 
of men, women, and children. I am amazed 
at such speeches from the lips of American 
Senators, wliose candor ought not to be lightly 
called in question. But is it possible that 
these Senators do not know that every nation 
on earth having colored inhabitants has incor- 
porated them into its armies? On this subject 
permit me to quote a few passages on concur- 
rent history : 

" The monardiical i/ovcrunicnls <il' rnropo and Amoric.-i, 
tlinso that tolcnilo slavery, ami 'hoso llialilo ii<jt,alikeaKi-ci> 
ill eni|>l'iyiii(,' iiDgrnys arincil tor tlio ])iil)lio ilul'iaicu. Tlicy 
flncl llial llu! bnnUiis ol war, and tho saurilico (if life it occa- 
sions, are ton great to bo l)oni» liy llic wliiti! nice alone. 
They call upon the colored races tberoforo to share in the 



burden, and to encounter, iu common willi the whites, the 
risks of loss of life. 

" Thus, we find that in the Spanish colony of Cuba, with 
a population one-half slaves and one-sixth colored, a mili- 
tia of free blacks and mulattoes was directed by General Pe- 
zuela (Governor General) to be organized iu 1854 throughout 
the island, and it was put upon an equal footing with regard 
to privilege with the regular army. This measure was not 
rescinded by Governor General Concha in 1855, but the 
black and mulatto troops have been made a permanent 
cori)s of the .Spanish army. (Condensed in the very phra- 
nes of Thrasher's preface to his edition of Humboldt's Cuba.) 

" In the Portuguese colonies on the coast of Africa, the 
regiments are chiefly composed of black men. At Prince's 
Island the garrison consists of a company of regular artil- 
lery of eiglity, and a regiment of black militia of ten hun- 
dred and fifty-eight rank and file, of which the colonel is a 
white man. At St. Tliomas's there are two regiments of 
black militia. In Loando, the Portuguese can, on an emer- 
gency of war with the natives, bring into the fi'Md twauty- 
flve thousand partially civilized blacks armed with muskets. 
(From Valdez's Six Years on the West Coast of Africa. Lou- 
don, 1S61. Two vols. 8vo.) 

" In the Dutch co'ony of the Gold Coast of Africa, with 
a population of one hundred thousand, the garrison of the 
fortress consists of two hundred soldiers, whites, mulattoes, 
and blacks, under a Dutch colonel. 

" In the capital of the French colony of Senegal, on the 
same coast, at St. Louis, the defence of the place is in the 
hands of eight hundred white and throe hundred black 
soldiers. (The preceding facts are also from Valdez ) 

" In the Danish island of St. Croix, in the West Indies, for 
more than twenty-five years past, there have been employ- 
ed two corps of colored soldiers, in the presence of slaves. 
(From Tijckerman's Santa Cruz.) 

"InBrazi', notwithstanding its three million slaves, its 
monarchical Government employs all colors and races in the 
military service, either by enlistment or forcible seizure. 
The police of the city of Rio de Janeiro is a military organi- 
zation, composed mostly of colored men, drilled and com- 
manded by army officers. The navy is principally manned 
by civilized aborigines. (Hidder; Ewbank.) 

" The course pursued by the British Government in Ja- 
maica, Sierra Leone, and Hindostan, is so notorious as sim- 
ply to need to be mentioned. 

" In Turkey, no distinction of color or race is made in 
the ranks of the regular army. 

Is it probable that the English, French, Span- 
ish, Portuguese, Brazilians, Turks, D,»nes, and 
Dutch, after reviewing their own colored regi- 
ments in Canada, South America, Africa, the 
East and the West Indies, would suffer ma- 
terially in their sensibilities in witnessing regi- 
ments of colored men in South Carolina? 

The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Davis] has 
suggested that it would be dangerou.s to arm 
negroes on account of the peculiarities of their 
character. He says that when they once ob- 
tain the smell or taste of blood they ])ecome 
demons, and are controlled with great dilficulty. 
But this objection cannot apply to them as 
soldiers •, their qualities and capacity in this 
respect have been testt^d by the Dutch, English, 
and French, The question has therefore been 
settled. I drew the inference, however, that 
in the opinion of the Senator, arming slaves 
would unfit them forever for the service of 
their masters. I do not conaplain of him for 
bringing this to the attention of the Senate. I 
believe wise statesmen have entertained the 
same opinion in every age; our ancestors were 
equally impressi.'d with this conviction, aud 
consetjuently always provided for tln^ emanci- 
pation of slaves who had served in our armies. 
This principle has not been overlooked by my 
colleague [Mr. Ghi.mks] in preparing the 
pending amendments to this bill. They pro- 




11 



vide that colored men may, at the discretion of 
the Presideot, enter the military and naval 
service of their country, and that all those who 
respond to this call shall, at the conclusion of 
the struggle, be entitled to their freedom. This 
is right ; no slave who has borne arms as a 
soldier or seaman would afterwards be fit for 
slavery. 

I am reminded that one of these amend- 
ments also provides that their wives and chil- 
dren shall be freed. Well, Mr. President, could 
a wiser policy be adopted or one better calcu- 
lated to prompt them to fight with determina- 
tion for the perpetuity of your institutions 
than the prospect of their own liberty and the 
liberty of their wives and of their children and 
children's children for all time to come ? An 
army composed of such soldiers could never be 
conquered. 

But, Mr. President, many may be liberated 
by the provisions of this bill and necessary 
kindred measures during the progress of the 
war who may not be needed, and who may be 
unfit for the public service. What shall be 
done with them? My answer has been par- 
tially given under another head. I will only 
add here one other reflection. We have seen 
that wherever free colored people are found in 
this country they provide for themselves. They 
do not become a burden on society. No con 
siderable number of them become either pau- 
pers or criminals. If they have not proved in- 
competent to provide for themselves heretofore, 
the presumption is that no considerable num- 
ber of them will hereafter. But if they should, 
then interpose with legal provisions for their 
protection as you would for the protection of 
paupers of any other class. When other men 
women, or children, in civilized society, are 
found to be incapable of taking care of them- 
selves, the laws require the courts of probate 
to appoint guardians of their persons and prop- 
erty, who are required to give bond and ap- 
proved security for the faithful execution of the 
guardianship. The ear of the court is ever 
open to the complaint of the ward, whether 
made by him in person or by " his next friend." 
The guardian is thus bound by law and stimu- 
lated by public opinion to execute faithfully 
and humanely this trust. Let these same prin- 
ciples of justice apply to black paupers that 
are applied to paupers of any other color. It 
justice and humanity require such restraints to 
secure the rights and interests of orphans and 
paupers and non compos of our own color and 
race, how much more dangerous must it be to 
place infants and paupers of another race and 
color under the absolute control of self-appoint- 
ed guardians without the slightest restraints o 
law, to be worked or punished or sold or used as 
unrestrained passion or caprice might prompt? 
If any of the liberated slaves should prove in- 
capable of providing for themselves, apply the 
same principles of justice to them that you now 



apply to such persons of any other class, and 
the whole difficulty will have been met and 
overcome. In my State we have the same laws 
for the protection and management of paupers 
of all classes, and I believe this is done in a 
majority of the States without causing the 
slightest difficulty. And there is no necessity 
for a distinction in this respect in a rebel State. 
If large numbers of these people are destitute 
of intelligence or capacity to provide for them- 
i selves and to protect their own interests in any 
', given locality, it creates no necessity for a new 
j rule. The application of the principles that 
I protect the few will be sufficient to protect lar- 
i ger numbers. If, therefore, a majority of lib- 
! erated Africans were found by experience to be 
incompetent to provide for themselves, society 
would not receive the slightest shock. They 
would receive the protection of guardians ap- 
pointed by the courts, under bond with ap- 
proved security, responsible to the tribunals of 
justice for their conduct; and society would re- 
ceive the advantages of their labor and service 
afterwards as before, and the laborer would be 
secured in the enjoyment of the proceeds of 
his toil. 

But we have seen that this allegation of in- 
competency to provide for themselves is not 
true. It may be partially true in limited lo- 
calities and in certain communities, but as a 
general proposition it is totally false. On this 
point it might not be amiss to give the testimo- 
ny of a rebel Senator, by whose side I sat in 
the old Chamber for several years. I refer to 
the rebel Robert Toombs. In private conver- 
sation he told me repeatedly that there was no 
practical difficulty in liberating the sla.ves ; he 
said it was all a pretence ; the men who assert- 
ed this doctrine were demagogues. He said 
that he defended slavery because, in his judg- 
ment, it was right; it was for his interest and 
the interest of his people to perpetuate it; and 
almost every old Senator here will recognise 
such a statement as characteristic of his bold- 
ness and candor. My friead from New Hamp- 
shire says that he told him the same thing. 
Wise statesmen and candid men, all over 
the slave States, admit the same thing. It 
is only from the lips of politicians — I will 
not say demagogues, for that would be of- 
fensive — that we hear of the impossibility of 
preserving peace and order in a community 
composed in part of free negroes. They talk 
of the practical difficulties in the way of 
emancipation, until they have impressed socie- 
ty with the conviction that free negroes are 
exceedingly dangerous to civil society. When 
examined candidly in the light of our own ex- 
perience and that of other nations, these sup- 
posed difficulties vanish; the mountain be- 
comes at once but a molehill. While the Sen- 
ator from New Hampshire was speaking, some 
one handed me a note stating that tbe navy in 
Brazil is composed of negroes, with the excep- 



12 



tion of the officers. My colleague and the chair- 
man of the Committee oa Naval Affairs tell 
me that time out of miud our owu navy has 
been supplied in part with colored seamen. 
Hence we perceive that they may be used with 
impunity in our armies and navy, for the com- 
mon defence in time of v/ar, and that they may 
be governed and controlled, as freemen, in 
times of peace, vv'ithout ihe slightest danger to 
civil society. 

Then, if there is no practical difficulty, and 
the hand of God has thrown open their prison 
doors, and you no longer are embarrassed by 
constitutional impediments, and it is your in- 
terest to do so, why not adopt a policy which 
may probably result in the liberation of all the 
slaves in the rebel States ? I admit that the 
passage of this bill and amendments may have 
that effect; I think it will. I think that will be 
the practical effect of the policy proposed. The 
bill provides for the liberation of all those that 
shall have been employed in the armed service 
of the United States, with their wives and chil- 
dren ; and I do not doubt that it will lay the 
foundation for the liberation, sooner or later, of 
the mass of the colored populat on of the rebel 
districts, and ultimately of the whole country. 
This does not alarm me. A careful examina- 
tion of the whole subject, including a candid 
analysis of the arguments of objectors, my own 
observation, and the observations of others of 
the highest intelligence, illustrated by the his- 
tory and experience of other nations, convinces 
me that this policy will not involve us in the 
slightest danger. I know other Senators have 
expressed great fear. But I do not think they 
have examined the subject with sufficient care. 
The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Davis] has 
been very earnest in urging the greatest for- 
bearance. It is manifest to all acquainted with 
his candor that lie entertains the most serious 
apprehensions. He has repeatedly cautioned 
the Senate against a policy that he evidently 
fears might cause a repetition of the bloody 
scenes of St. Domingo. But a careful exami- 
nation of that case will prove that it is always 
more dangerous to do wrong than to act justly. 
It is hardly necessary for me to inform the 
Senator that the French Deputies had provided 
by law for the freedom of all the slaves on the 
island ; but their musters resisted the decree, 
and attempted by force to continue their bond- 
age contrary to law. Smarting under this fla- 
grant injustice, the slaves undertook the vindi- 
cation of their own rights under the laws of 
France; and in their redress of this giievance 
they did commit some acts of barbarity. They 
did it, however, in defence of their legal rights. 
By law they were free. Their masters attempted 
the folly of continuing their bondage in viola- 
tion of law, and they suffered a fearful penalty. 
But, sir, were these negroes singular in this ? 
Did they not in this act very much like white 
people ? You, sir, would have acted substan- 



tially as they did ; so would the Senator from 
Kentucky himself. All men love liberty. Sla- 
very is sufficiently galling when sanctioned by 
the law of the laud ; but should you attempt to 
impose on any one chains contrary to law, 
could you expect him to submit to the outrage ? 
You would not, Mr. President; nor would I; 
nor would the Senator from Kentucky. Under 
these circumstances very few would have hesi- 
tated to strike for their liberty. Had it been 
done by white men it would have received the 
praise of mankind. It was this persistence in 
a gigantic wrong by the slaveholders, in viola- 
tion of the law of the land, that drenched St. 
Domingo in blood. 

But admitting that there is no practical dif- 
ficulty, I am aware that Senators and others fre- 
quently suggest that this policy would inaugu- 
rate a condition of society which white peo- 
ple would not tolerate. They inquire, " what 
will you do with the blacks eveu if they should 
prove to be competent to provide for their own 
support? Will you put them on a platform of 
equality with the white people; will you make 
this mass of negroes throughout the whole 
country equal with your own sons and daugh- 
ters? Are you in favor of the equality of the 
races?" When I have heard such suggestions 
from the stump during the excitement of polit- 
ical campaigns, I have sometimes answered in 
terms of ridicule ; but that does not become 
this presence, and I shall, therefore, for once, 
treat the interrogatories with a careful aud 
candid analysis. 

Then what is meant by the phrase " equality 
of negroes with white men ?"' Do Senators 
mean physical equality ; that the liberation of 
a negro slave would necessarily make him 
physically equal to the white man ? The in- 
quiry alone in this analytical form renders it 
ridiculous. I apprehend that his skin would 
still be black ; that his lips would be thick ; 
that his heel would be long ; that his foot would 
be flat ; that his skull would be thick ; and that 
he would be less symmetrical and beautiful in 
form than the white man, aud probably less 
capable of enduring fatigue and toil in a cli- 
mate adapted equally to the temperament of 
each. It is probable that the white race is ca- 
pable of greater endurance than any other race 
of men on earth. It is not, therefore, I con- 
clude, the apprehension of physical equality 
that excites this apparent alarm. 

Then is it mental equality? Do they intend 
to inquire if, in our opinion, this would make 
the negro eqiniUy acute in his mental percep- 
tions with the white man ; make his memory 
equally retentive, his powers of comparison 
and reasoning equally reliable, or his logic 
equally conclusive, or his will equally persist- 
ent with that of the white man ? I apprehend 
that nobody anticipates any such result from 
the enactment of any law. His physical and 
mental organization would remain afterwards, 



itfiMJiiiiittlHiMiib 



13 



as before, subject to the ordinary laws of crea- 
tion and cultivation. 

Then is it moral equality to which objection 
is made? By moral capacity I suppose is 
meant that power of the human mind or heart 
that recognises moral obligations as the con- 
comitant of certain relations in life ; that is to 
say, when I perceive that a certain human be- 
ing is my father and another one is my child, 
there springs up an emotion that we call moral 
obligation to reverence the one and to provide 
for the other. When we perceive the relations 
that exist between members of a family, as 
husband and wife, brother and sister, the same 
kind of spontaneous emotion springs up, usually 
denominated moral obligation. When we con- 
template the relation that exists between the 
citizen and the Government, the subject and 
the prince, between man and man as members 
of the human family, or between man as the 
creature and God as the Creator, we experience 
certain emotions, which we denominate pa- 
triotism, loyalty, humanity, and piety, and which 
prompt us to perform corresponding acts ; they 
are called moral acts, because they are said to 
spring from this feeling of moral obligation 
Now, is it equality in these respects to which 
Senators object? Do they object to making 
colored men free, and to allowing them to 
*' know " their own wives, and to be able to 
recognise their own children, lest they may ex- 
perience moral emotions — feelings of obliga- 
tion to provide for them and protect them on 
a platform of equality with white men ? I ap- 
prehend that it is not the kind of equality that 
gentlemen refer to, and which they fear may 
result in the destruction of human society. 

Perhaps some one would suggest that it is 
social equality with negroes that white men 
loathe. Hence I now pay my respects to the 
apprehension of evil under this head. What 
is meant by social equality ? I suppose that the 
social intercourse of men with each other is 
the result of the mutual discovery on their part 
of a congeniality resulting from common aspira- 
tions, desires, inclinations, and tastes, and 
which prompt them to seek common means of 
enjoyment. Now, I inquire, if it is necessary to 
pass a law to regulate a man's associations, 
would you expect to be able by the enactment 
of a law of Couffress to make any one the 
equal or the inferior of the Senator from Ken- 
tucky as a social being, or to make any other 
two gentlemen, without refei'ence to race or 
color, the equals of each other in a social point 
of view? Is social intercourse a fit subject of 
legislation ? Do not our associations grow out 
of and depend on other causes? Are they not 
the inevitable result of similarity of habits, 
tastes, dispositions, temperament, and conge- 
niality of spirit? In a free country is it pos- 
sible to control social intercourse by the enact 
ment of a law ? You might have covered the 
statute-books of Kentucky all over with laws 



to the contrary, and Hon. Richard M. Johnsoa 
would have associated with a negro wench as 
his wife. They were the social equals of each 
other. Intellectually he was probably her su- 
perior, but socially they were exact equals. la 
temperament, disposition, and tastes, each 
found the other a boon companion. This was 
not the result of the legal abilities or disabil- 
ities of either. He was a free man, and she, 
I believe, was a slave. This association did 
not spring from her liberation ; this social 
equality was not the result of abolition. It oc- 
curred in a slave State, in the bosom of a slave- 
holding community. Nor was it an isolated 
case, as is demonstrated beyond all dispute or 
cavil by the presence of an immense mulatto 
population in every slaveholding State. 

It may be objected that this illustration per- 
tains more to the family relations than to social 
intercourse. But I answer, it is all the more 
conclusive on that account. The family rela- 
tions furnish the most sacred means of social 
intercourse ; it gives society a permanency 
which makes its members more directly ame- 
nable to the civil authorities. Hence, if even 
here men follow their tastes regardless of the 
restraints of law, how would you hope to con- 
trol by legal enactments the more miscella- 
neous social intercourse of life ? It is literally 
impossible. It does not depend on legal pro- 
visions. 

Mr. DAVIS. Will the honorable Senator 
permit me to ask him a question? 

Mr. HARLAN. Certainly. 

Mr. DAVIS. I ask the honorable Senator if 
in a good many of the Northern States the free 
negro is not allowed to vote? 

Mr. HARLAN. I will come to that in a mo- 
ment. 

Mr. DAVIS. I ask if in the State of Massa- 
chusetts he is not allowed to practice law? 

Mr. SUMNER. Certainly ; a law to her honor. 

Mr. DAVIS. I was addressing my question 
to the honorable Senator from Iowa. 1 ask the 
honorable Senator, too, whether in Massachu- 
setts there was not a law some time ago forbid- 
ding intermarriage between the white race and 
the negro race, and whether that law within the 
last few years has not been repealed. Is that 
to your honor, too ? I ask the Senator if he 
would consider a general matrimonial alliance 
between the two races in Massachusetts to their 
honor? 

Mr. HARLAN. I have great respect for the 
Senator from Kentucky, and have had since I 
began to notice our public men ; although he 
may have known but little of me, being some- 
what his junior, I have known him a long time, 
and have contemplated his character with great 
pleasure during his whole political career. I 
know that the Senator does not trifle with any 
subject, that he speaks with candor, and that 
he propounds these questions with the expecta- 
tion of a candid reply. 



14 



[The honorable Senator here gave way tem- 1 
porarily for the consideration of reports from 
committees of conference ; after which he pro- 
ceeded.] 

When I gave way I was stating that social 
equality was the result of mutual wishes, de- 
sires, tastes, and purposes on the part of the 
individual seeking social intercourse, and was 
not a legitimate subject of legislation. I will 
not pursue this further than to say that the 
possession of wealth by some, and the destitu- 
tion of others, i-endering them unequal in abil- 
ity to command the means of common enjoy- 
ment, must exert a powerful influence on social 
intercourse. With this modification, the posi 
tion I havei taken appears to me to be impreg- 
nable. And this leads me to reply in regular 
order to the interrogatories of the Senator from 
Kentucky. First, whether the people of the 
free States of different colors are inhibited by 
the State laws from intermarriage. This ques- 
tion might have been propounded with greater 
propriety by me to him, as I have no doubt he 
is familiar with the statutory provisions of the 
various States ; but I will answer that in some 
of the free Slates there is no such law. In 
some of them such laws existed for a time and 
were then repealed. I remember that in In- 
diana, the State in which I was brought up, a 
law existed for a year or so requiring every 
young man, on application for marriage license, 
to make satisfactory proof, by oath or other- 
wise, that his intended bride was not a negress ; 
but the young men rebelled against this re- 
quirement. They regarded it as an imputation 
on their tastes, habits, and associations, and 
the law was repealed. They did not deem 
that such a presumption, as applicable to them, 
was just ; that no officer had a right to presume 
that they could entertain a desire to seek a ne- 
gress for a wife. I suppose the Senator is now 
Bufficienlly answered on that point. If I were 
disposed to be facetious, I would inquire of 
him if he deemed it necessary in Kentucky, to 
prevent the intermarriage of white people with 
negroes, to prohibit it by a penal statute. Such 
a law would be a standing insult to the white 
population of his State. There may be a few 
such intermarriages in any State, either with or 
without the sanction of law ; and without the 
sanction of law more of them occur in slave 
communities than in the free States, so that an 
application of the argument involved in his in- 
terrogatory is directly in favor of the liberation 
of the slave population. Have there been any 
such marriages consummated in Washington 
city between the white people and the slaves 
who were liberated a few months since by a 
law of Congress ? I think none have occurred ; 
and the apprehension is perfectly groundless. 
Sir, is there no other reason for the separation 
of the black and white races, in their matrimo- 
nial alliances, than the penalties of the crimi- 
nal law ? Has the hand of nature fixed uo 



barrier to such loathsome associations? Will 
they instinctively spring into each others arms 
in the absence of legal restraints ? Are the 
charms of the negro wench so far superior to 
those of the Caucasian maid as to enable the 
first to outstrip the latter in a fair competition 
for the attentions of the sterner sex ? And do 
your young men deem themselves so far infe- 
rior in gallantry tothe sable sons of Africa as to 
need the assistance of a criminal code to ex- 
clude the latter when paying their devotions at 
the shrine of female loveliness ? Are they not 
content with the natural superiority with which 
nature has clothed them ? Sir, in my State 
we have no such law. None is needed. I 
suppose no such law exists in the Senator's 
own State; if so, it is a standing disgrace to 
the people, for it implies that their tastea lead 
them to such associations. 

Tl>e Senator iiiqiiired whether politica' equality was not 
imphed in the suggestions of the proposition before the Sen- 
ate aud the argument that I have attempted to present. To 
this I reply that there is no such thing as political equality 
in nature. Political equalitj- never did, aud never will, 
exist between all the members of any civil society, 
whether of the same or of different races. It does not exist 
here. It does not exist in any one of the States of this 
Union. lu the first place, about one half of the entire white 
population of the whole country is disfranchised ; can exer- 
cise no political privileges whatever; can neither vote nor 
hold ollice nor bear arras. I ref-;r to that better, portion of 
society which always commands our highest regards. And 
perhaps their exclusion from the political arcDa ought to be 
considered as the result of our reverence for them, and not 
in the nature of a disability. Another very large propor- 
tion of the white population are disfranchised; all those 
under twenty-one years of age, even of the males, are en- 
tirely excluded Irum the enjoyment of political privileges. 
And all those of foreign birth who have lived in the country 
less than five years are entirely excluded under your natu- 
ralization laws. Hence you perceive there is but a small 
fraction of the entire population of this country who are 
politically enfranchised, and these enjoy political privileges 
in various degrees. 

I will not pursue this branch of the subject further than 
to remark that I suppose the principle on which political 
rights are conferred on members of any civil community is 
a supposed capacity on their part to hold, enjoy, aud exer- 
cise these privileges with safety and advantage to society 
itself. It is sn])posed to be inconsistent with the safety and 
perpetuity of civil so:iety that those under twenty-one 
years of age, as a general rule, should bo permitted to hold 
tlie reins of Government, or to control the policy of the 
State; and hence they are excluded. It is on the ground of 
incapacity — not that all under that age are incompetent, but 
that a majorit}' probably are; and the rule is made general 
on account of the' difficulty of legislating for each individ- 
ual. The same may be said of our adopted fellow-citizens. 
All do uot require a residence of five years to qualify them 
for the performance of the duties of American citizens. 
Some are as intelligent when they first laud on our shores 
as the average, at least, of the native inhabitants; but, as a 
general rule, a residence of five years would be necessary 
to familiarize them with our institutions and laws, so as to 
enable them to exercise discreetly aud safoiy the rights of 
citizenship. 

The Indians, as a class, are excluded on the same ground; 
small bauds and remnants of tribes alone are included as 
voters; and these only by special acts of Congress, when 
Uieir attainments aud their improved position in the scale of 
civilization would seem to justify it. AVhon supposed to be 
iucompetent to exercise these rights safely, tliey are uni- 
versally excluded. So it should be in relation to the uegro 
population. The same principles should be applied. My 
own State, for example, excludes th? whole negro popula- 
tion from the enjoyment ot the right of suffrage and the 
right to hold olllce, not on account of color, but on accouut 
of supposed incapacity to exercise those rights safely for 
themselves or others. All of them are not, but a very large 
majority are believed to be incompotcut to exorcise dis- 
creetly these high prerogatives; aud as we canuot very well 



15 



legislate in relation to each individual, all are excluded. 

I understand tbat several of the free States of the North- 
west, Illinois and Indiana, and perhaps others, have enacted 
similar laws. They exclude them because, in their judg- 
ment, thev are incompetent— the principle on which all 
other classes are excluded which are not permitted to exer- 
cise these privileges. Their liberation from slavery would 
produce no immediate change in their character in this re- 
. spect, and would not involve the necessity of clothing them 
Nfllkia high civil trusts. Nor could this continued disability 
on their part bo justly considered a hardship; as well might 
the laud-lubber complain that he is not permitted to stand 
at the helm and guide the ship, when the safety of all on 
board requires that it should bo navigated by the most ex- 
perienced seaman. The welfare of the negroes themselves 
requires that the ship of State should be guided by experi- 
enced hands; they have no more right to complain of this 
exclusion than any other class which we have mentioned. 
They may enjoy all the blessings of civil hberty without 
the right "to vote and hold offl:e. Unnaturalized foreigners 
are as free before as they are after their naturalization. 
Ladies and minor children are free; they are ctizens of the 
Republic, citizens of the various States, and yet they do not 
participate in the enjoyment of any of these political privi 
leges. In the exclusion of any and all of these classes from 
the enjoyment of political rights, the States act on the same 
principle; they are supposed to be, if they are not in fact, 
incompetent, and the safety of the community requires that 
they should be thus excluded uutil the requisite intelligence 
shall be secured. 

Then, sir, if I have answered the Senator's questions suffi- 
ciently, I inquire what has become of the taunt of " negro 
equality?" What has become of the sneering inquiry, 
whether those who propose to arm the black men, and at 
the end of their military service to give them freedom, in- 
tend to secure their equality with the white race ? We have 
seen that the liberation of negro slaves does not imply that 
they and the white msiu will thence become physically 
equal, mentally equal, morally equal, socially equal, or po- 
litically equal; but they shall be equal with the white race 
in tlieir right to themselves and the enjoyment of the pro- 
ceeds of their own labor; they shall from that time forward 
be in a position to fulfll the conditions of the original curse 
that man should earn his bread by tke sweat of his own 
face; that he shall earn it for himself and those immediately 
dependent upon him, and not be compelled to earn it for 
another. They will be equal with white men in their right to 
justice and the protection of the laws; they shall have an 
equal right to the free use of their own bodies, their own 
intellects, their own moral affections, and the right to apply 
the proceeds of their own labor to the promotion of then- 
own welfare and the welfare of their dependent fami- 
lies; and if it shall be found by experience that any of them 
are incompetent to provide for themselves and their families, 
they will have a right to demand the appointment of a guar- 
dian for their protectiou. No other equality is implied in 
the Declaration of Independence, and none other is demand- 
ed by the friends of emancipation. 

Examined, then, from any point of view which suggests 
itself to my mind, I am able to perceive no objection to the 
result which is contemplated with so much apparent alarm 
by Senators from States tolerating slavery. All declama- 
tion and argument designed to demonstrate the danger of a 
free negro population to the peace and quiet of a white 
community is triumphantly reluted by the rapid increase of 
the beautitul commercial metropolis of Maryland in popula- 
tion and wealth, although its streets swarm with free ne- 
groes. Sir, the condition of thirty-six thousand free negroes 
of Baltimore is a standing daily refutation of their alleged 
inability to provide for themselves, and to become peacea- 
ble members of civilized society. 

This brings mo to consider, in conclusion, the censure of 
the Senate by the Senator from Pennsylvania. He inquired, 
why do you not fsten on these exciting subjects to the rep- 
resentatives from the border States ; why do you not follow 
their advice, and thus steer clear of the quicksands and 
breakers that sei-m to interrupt the progress of the ship of 
State? This implies that wo do not meet here on terms of 
perfect equality as members of a dehberative body, in 
which each one can demand only a respectlul heaiiug, and 
then an honest judgment of his peers based on the merits 
of the case. It implies a kind of superiority on the part of 
the Senators from slave States to require a blind acquies- 
cence in their views without considering their facts and 
weighing their reasons. 

Now, sir, I protest against such implication. A Senator 
who occupies a seat on this floor from a slave State has no 
right to demand a concurrence in his views; he has no right 



to dictate the policy of the nation. All Ue has a right to re- 
quire of this Senate is a respectful, candid hearing, and 
then a candid, honest judgment. The Senate was not organ- 
ized to record edicts ; it is supposed to be a deliberative 
body of peers. Senators arc expected to listen patiently, 
and to carefully weigh all that can be said on all sides "of 
every great national question, and then to express, in the 
form of laws, their solemn judgment. It is as much the 
duty of the Senator from Kentucky to follow my advice as 
it is my duty to follow his. It may be thought, however, 
that those who are surrounded by slavery ought to be bet- 
ter judges of the ed'ects of legisl itiou affecting the relation 
of master and slave, and of the legislation calculated to ad- 
vance the welfare of such communities. This should be 
admitted to be true in a qualified sense; in discussing every 
local question they have a right to extraordinary indulgence, 
just as every other Senator has when questions are ponding of 
deep local interest to their immediate constituents. But, on 
the other hand, their statements, which are in the nature of 
evidence, must be received with many grains of allowance. 
Their testimony is not disinterested. 'Ihey have a direct, 
certain interest in the subject of controversy. Th(?y are 
therefore to be heard as a witness who testifies for himself. 
Under the ordinary rules of judicial tribunals, they would 
not be permitted to testify in such a case; they would be 
excluded from the jury-box, and would not be permitted to 
^udicate the cause. If, however, you admit their compe- 
tOTce as witne.sses, as jurors, and judges, by what extraor- 
dinary rules of judicature do you claim that they shall be 
the only witnesses who shall be examined, the only jurors 
who shall be sworn, and the exclusive judgo.s in their own 
case ? This appears to me to be the very climax of pre- 
sumption. 

Sir, these Senators, instead of coming into this delibera- 
tive body with superior .claims to consideration ou the 
subject of slavery, come under that class of disabilities 
which should require us to weigh with extraordinary care 
their arguments and their statements of facts ; for when 
tried by our experience and observation of their previous 
counsel, we are not encouraged to rely on it imiilicitly in 
the future. We have evidence that they are not infallible 
advisers, but are men of like passions and like weaknesses 
with ourselves. A majority of the Senators from what are 
called the border States have steadily opposed every meas- 
ure adopted for the prosecution of this war for the suppres- 
sion of the rebellion. Had their advice been followed, the 
rebellion would have culminated long since in the in- 
auguration of some one of the chief rebels as the President 
of the Republic, and we would have come to the end of our 
experiment of self-government. They have not given the 
slightest consideration to that overwhelming conviction of 
the public mind in the free States, that slavery is in a cer- 
tain sense the cause of the war so needlessly commenced 
and waged against our nationality. They have steadily 
and persistently opposed every measure calculated in the 
most remote degree to affect its perpetuity, or to bring it 
onder the restraints of law. The only fair interpretation of 
which their votes and speeches are susceptible, with two or 
three honorable exceptions, is that slavery is the para- 
mount institution in this country, for the protectioa of 
which the Constitution was adopted, and without which the 
Constitution and Government are wjrthless. 

Sir, this is as we should expect, when we reflect that 
nearly every Senator and Representative from the so-called 
border States are slaveholders themselves, and represent 
communities ruled and governed by slaveholders almo.?t 
exclusively. The first incident calling my attention to this 
fact was the election of the one hundred members of the 
recent constitutional convention in the State of Kentucky. 
These delegates represented, nominally, a community com- 
posed of many hundreds of thousands of nou-slaveholding 
whites, and a few thousand slaveholders only, and yet 
every delegate was a slaveholder. The non-siaveholding 
interests were without a representative. From my subse- 
quent observation I am convinced that this is but an illus- 
tration of the general ru e in slavehokling communities. 
Slaveholders hold nearly all the offices of honor and trust; 
they control society, and the local legislation of the respect- 
ive States, as absolutely as if non-slaveholders had no ex- 
istence. They are completely ignored in every discussion. 
And until a very recent period the same impetuous policy 
controlled Congress. And even now Senators from slaves 
holding States imperiously demard that their suggestion- 
shall be blindly adopted; and when, at the close of adiscus- 
sion,they find themselves occasionally in the minority — that 
they have been treated only as peers, and not as superiors, 
some of them manifest a stolid indifference to the fate of the 
nation by absenting themselves from the Chamber for weeks 



16 



in succession, and others denounce the miijority and pre- 
dict tbe most dire consequences as the Iruits of our stupid- 
ity. Nothing has been more persistently asserted than the 
consolidiitl'iu of the population of all the slave States in oppo- 
sition to the Govornniont of the United States if their sug- 
gestions were not implicitly followed. And yet we have in 
no community realized any such result. The passage of 
every law on this subject, enacted during the present Con- 
gress, has in my opinion made us stronger in every bor- 
der State. j 

Tlie non-slaveholdors of the border SUites cannot have j 
failed to perceive what is patent to tbe world, that whatever 
remains of secession within their limits is fostered and 
cherished by slaveholders. This has been true since the 
commencement of the rebellion. Your policy and your 
arms have met with a stronger resistance from those in au- 
thority, chiefly slaveholders, than from any other class of! 
these communities. Tbe (ioveruors of all those States re- 
fused or declined to comply with the President's requisition 
for troops to defend the Union. The Governor of Kentucky , 
and a largo number of those at the head of public alJairs, 
are believed to bo still untrustworthy. This was true in 
Maryland. Although the Governor stood firm in his loyalty, 
your authorities were compelled to arrest, I believe, a ma- \ 
jority of the members of her Legislature, to prevent that 
State from formally seceding from the Union, while I have i 
no doubt niuc-temhs of her people are loyal to the hearLj 
but the ruling members of society were disloyal slaveholder^ 
And this I believe to be true in every border State. Those 
from whom you have most to fear arc those who have been 
enjoying tho patronage of the State and national Govern- 
ments for ages. The most obtuse cannot fail to perceive 
that slaveholders originated this rebellion, and are now 
sustaining and controlling it. How foolish, then, for this 
Government to ignore another class of white people in the 
slave States. It is my solemn conviction that their interests 
require the termination of slavery. It is my duty, there 
fore, as a Senator of the United States, in legislating for the 
nation, to consider their welfare as much as the welfare of 
their more wealthy slaveholding neighbors. 

If the measures adopted by this Congress and the one 
now pending should diminish the power of the few who 
have hitherto led society, the policy will increase the power 
of the masses; and I have not so poor an opinion of those 
who do not own s lave property in tho slave States, as to 
believe them incompetent to comprehend their own true 
interest. When you adopt a policy here for the welfare of 
the whole )!ation,and especially for the welfare of the la- 
boring classes, th<!y will be no more slow to perceive their 
true interest than the population in your State or mine. In 
my opinion, therefore, the adaption of these measures will 
give the Union increased strength in the border Sta,tes. 

It has been suggested, however, I believe, by the Senator 
from Peuni:.vlvaaia, during this discussion, that the enlist- 
ment of negroes for companions in the ranks would dis- 
courage the enlistment of white men. The amendments 
now pending do not contemplate such an association. The 
colored men and white men will be organized into separate 
companies and regiments. 

I do not, then, Mr. President, anticipate any bad conse- 
quences which can legitimately flow from the passage of 
this bill or the amendments proposed by my colleague. I 
think the legitimate effect will be to weaken slavery. I have 
no doubt on^this subject. I do not vote for this measure 
on that account; but I will not vote against the bill on that 
account. I wil! follow the policy which has been suggested, 
not only by my political friends in Iowa, but by tiiy politi- 
cal opponents. The Democrats of my State urge the prose- 
cution of this war for the supremacy of the laws, regard- 
less of the consequences to slavery. They look on that in- 
stitution asiu some way lying at tho very foundation of the 
rebellion, and they do not desire mo to treat it with gloved 
hands, but to adopt whatever policy, so far as my humble 
influence will extend, maybe calculated to crush out the 
rebellion ami to secure the perpetuity of the Union, and if 
Slavery should bo swept by tho board they will not be 
among the mourners at its funeral. 

I would not, if I know the convictions of my own heart, 
do an act that comes in conflict with the provisions of tlie 
Constitution of the United States. 1 do not perceive how, 
by any fair construction, tmdcr any known rule of interpre- 
tation, the passage of this bill can conflict with that instru- 
ment. The Senator from Illinois, [Mr. Biwwni.ng,] for 
whose judicial oi)inions I have a very profound respect, ex- 
pressed thi' opinion, as I understood him, that tho emanci- 
pation of the black recruit as a reward for faithful service 
in the armies of the country would conflict with the con- 
Btitutional righta of his master; that black mou might bo 



entployed in the military service, but that provision should 
be made for their restoration to their masters at the end of 
the war. 

Mv. BROWNING. What I said was, that in freeing the 
slave of a rebel master, whom we receive into our service, 
that clothed us with no power to manumit his mother, wife 
and children, if they were the property of a loyal man. 
That is what I said. I said nothing about an inability to 
confer freedom upon the slaves of rebels whose services we 
accepted. .f, 

Mr. HARLAN. I did not, I think, misapprehend the Sen- 
ator, but must have been very unfortunate in my statement 
of my comprehension of his position. I do not, however, 
agree with the Senator in the proposition which he has just 
stated, that wo are bound to iuquire whether tho bluck re- 
cruit has a loyal or a didoyal master. If he is a sound, 
healthy man, capable of performing military duty, the Gov- 
ernment is under no obligations to inquire whether he has 
or has not a master, or whether the master is loyal or u 
rebel. Whenever it becomes necessary for tho defence of 
the Government, you have a right to coerce the service of 
every able-b'Xlied inhabitant, without reference to his color 
or position in society. As I have asked on this floor before, 
what better is a negro than a white boy? Your son or 
mine may be taken as a volunteer or as a conscript before 
he is twenty one years of age, and while ha owes his parent 
the whole of his service. The Government does not inquire 
whether the father is loyal or disloyal ; the only question 
propounded is, is tho boy capable of performing the service 
the Govorumont needs? If they find him physically and 
mentally competent, they enroll him and place him in the 
ranks, as I apprehend we have a right to do in relation to 
black men, without inquiring whether they are slaves or 
freemen, whether their masters are loyal or disloyal ; and 
if we ascertain that any of them are slaves, and if in our 
opinion they would become, on account of such a provision, 
more valuable as soldiers or as laborers, we may otf^r them 
the.r freedom and provide, also for the freedom of their 
families. I will not enter into an examination of the ques- 
tion whether the loyal owner may not demand and receive 
just compensation for the services of such slaves from the 
Government. An investigation of that question is not per- 
tinent to the issue joined. We propose to enlist these col- 
ored men, and put them in the trenches to dig ditches and 
to erect fortiticatious, and when found necessary, and when 
the parties are found competent, to arm them in tho defence 
of the country. 

They are, then, if we act wisely, to be taken wherever 
they can be found, wherever their services are needed, 
without any inquiry as to tho loyalty or disloyalty of those 
who claim to be their owners. No slave-owner can have a 
stronger or higher claim to the services of his negro slave 
than I have to the services of my minor son. You disre- 
gard my claim ; you enlist him in the service without con- 
sulting me, and without inquiry into my loyaltj' or disloy- 
alty. The relation of master and slave is surely no more 
.sacred than that of parent and child. If you may coerce 
the service of the child, why not of the slave? But if you 
have the constitutional right to do so, has it not become a 
solemn duty, so as to relieve our white troops, now so much 
prostrated by the hard labor and fatigue of camp life, in a 
climate to whichf they have not been accustomed? Those 
troops are among our very best and most patriotic citizens. 
They are intelligent men. TTjey know perfectly that tho 
decimation of their ranks by hard labor and toil in tho 
ditches was unnecessary. They know that they have en- 
dured all this useless toil on account of the blind infatuation 
of their commanditig generals, in excluding from their lines 
healthy men, acclimated, capable of performing all this 
drudgery and toil, without serious danger to themselves. 
It appears to them and to me as if these generals had a 
higher regard for the wolfare of negroes and their rebel 
masters than lor their own troops and their loyal families at 
home. This bill and pending amendments are proposed to 
secure a change of policy on this subject. I would be an 
unfaithful representative of the brave volunteers serving in 
our armies if I failed to give it my earnest support. They 
need the assistance of those contrabands to preserve their 
own health and to save their lives, now imperiled to secure 
the suprem.acy of tho laws. Aud they demand that we 
shall preserve the Union, and let slavery take care of itself, 
if it can. If it should perish during the struggle for nation- 
ality, in the opinion of a large majority of them it will bo a 
blessing to the coimtry, and tend to promote the wollaro of 
the human race. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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